David Mills wrote:

Hey folks,

I got a new Grundig YB PE 300 shortwave radio for Christmas! (yeah!).
The radio comes with an external antenna jack and an external antenna that
is approximately 17 feet long.

Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes? also would a
longer antenna be better?


Assuming it is essentially a straight piece of wire, no - it doesn't
matter,for the horizontal (N,W,E,S) direction. Vertically, get as much
of the wire as high as you can. Along the wall-ceiling juncture until it
makes the drop to your radio is best. If you can do that on the second
floor of a two-story house, so much the better.


also would a
longer antenna be better?


Likely, yes - but if you want to try it, start with a piece of wire
exactly twice as long. After that, experiment at will. If the supplied
antenna
has a jack on the end, use a similar jack on your homemade if you can.


So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much difference..but
not experimented much with it yet.

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?


Indoors is OK, if you get it as high as you can. If you decide to try a
much longer antenna, outdoors is best - but I use a 110' longwire
configuration
done entirely first-floor indoors, because I have no other choice - I
get excellent performance (regular reception of 1kW stations from all
over South America, for example, and, regularly, Hawaii and Australia
solid and clear).
But outdoors gets you further away from ambient indoor interference, and
gives you the opportunity for longer and higher wires - always better.



OTherwise..i am real happy with radio.. have already gotten readio Bulgaria
(in french), Taiwan and radio Netherlands (in English) and Radio France (in
french).


Half of good catches on SW is your radio/antenna combination, and the
other half is your *experience* with that radio/antenna combination.
Keep in touch and let us know how you're doing.

Tony


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